In internal combustion engines, signal offsets occur between a crankshaft angle signal and a combustion chamber pressure signal, which are referred to as TDC errors. An occurring TDC error disadvantageously affects the combustions of the internal combustion engine controlled as a function of the combustion chamber pressure. To correct this signal offset, crank angle positions of the maximum combustion chamber pressure are compared during drag operation to crank angle positions in situations without TDC errors. The situations in which the internal combustion engine is in drag operation are becoming increasingly rarer, which is why the correction options for the TDC error are limited.
A method for determining a correction for a measured combustion chamber pressure is described in German Patent Application No. DE 10 2009 043 431 A1, in which a pressure profile over a crankshaft angle φ1 at the beginning of a compression phase to a crankshaft angle φ2 at the end of the compression phase is determined and compared to a calculated modeled pressure profile for the compression phase from φ1 to φ2. A value for an amplitude correction of the combustion chamber pressure and a value for a crankshaft angle correction of the measured combustion chamber pressure are determined from a difference profile over the crank angle φ in the compression phase from φ1 to φ2 of the measured pressure profile and the modeled pressure profile.